Chapter 9: Dark and Damp Cave: A Claustrophobic's Paradise
After testing the cave for oxygen levels,
Juno took out climbing rope from her pack, secured it to an anchor point, and attached a carabiner.
"Gear up and prepare to descend."
"Juno, I'll go down with you."
Rebecca had just set down her pack when she saw Juno preparing to descend.
Juno shook her head: "No, since I'm the leader and I brought you all here, I should be the first one down."
While the two talked,
the others got ready.
Danny, carrying a light daypack, stretched a bit, preparing to go in minimal gear.
Everyone watched Juno slowly rappel down on the safety line, disappearing into the dark cave entrance.
Soon after, a voice echoed from below.
"Clear!"
Only then did everyone else, one by one, clip into their safety lines and begin descending.
Danny and Sarah were the last to go down. He took one final look around, thinking, "Damn, this is a perfect place to dispose of bodies."
"Hey, Danny, come on!"
Sarah called out, and only then did Danny follow the rope, bracing against the rock wall, slowly lowering himself to the cave floor.
As they descended, the view widened.
The interior of this cave was clearly its own world, at least five times larger than the entrance.
Danny was the last to reach the bottom and unclip. He looked up—the sunlight from the entrance shone down, creating a dramatic beam.
No light could be seen from above, but it was visible from below.
Juno looked at the sunlight streaming from the entrance and believed it was a good omen, that this expedition would definitely be safe.
The group surveyed the rock chamber.
Sarah looked around and was suddenly drawn to a rock formation, or more precisely, to a bloody handprint on the stone.
This was a dangerous sign.
Perhaps fearing she'd ruin everyone's mood, Sarah didn't mention it.
Just as Sarah was about to investigate further, a swarm of bats suddenly erupted from deeper in the cave, densely packed, heading toward the entrance.
Sarah, whose nerves were already on edge, was so startled she screamed.
Juno rushed over to comfort her.
Holly, still holding a camera, was filming the chaos, counting the bats like it was entertainment. This woman was truly obnoxious.
Danny glanced down as a card materialized in his hand. He wasn't sure what kind of monster was down here, but it shouldn't be too powerful, right?
[Traces of containable entity detected: Crawlers]
Crawlers?
Danny was quite familiar with these creatures. He'd studied various horror movie monsters extensively, and these happened to be among them.
The crawlers from The Descent were underground-dwelling humanoid predators that had evolved in complete darkness. Blind but with enhanced hearing and primitive intelligence, they were savage hunters adapted to the cave environment.
They seemed somewhat weaker in the film's depiction.
Perhaps evolution wasn't complete.
But setting that aside, their nature was certainly more threatening than the Hillickers.
Especially in such a confined and dark environment.
Human fear would be infinitely amplified.
Even Danny, despite being calm and prepared, couldn't help but feel both apprehensive and excited—the more dangerous a creature was, the more secure he'd feel once it became his containment.
After Sarah's mood settled,
Juno led everyone to an opening between rock formations. This was the only way to continue deeper, and it could barely accommodate one person at a time.
Juno turned on her helmet light and immediately entered the passage to scout ahead.
Danny was again the last to descend. He looked at the bloody handprint on the rock wall, then at the pitch-black cave entrance.
This place was a claustrophobic's worst nightmare.
Danny hesitated no longer and followed into the dark tunnel. Because he'd paid to upgrade his equipment, the powerful LED on his helmet was bright enough to see the path clearly.
The tunnel width was just enough for his shoulders to fit.
Danny followed the team, moving down gradually. Ten minutes later, the space ahead finally opened up.
If there'd still been some ambient light earlier because the entrance was close, then after navigating through the passage and reaching the chamber ahead, it was completely pitch black.
Juno, seeing everyone had caught up, pulled a road flare from her pack and tossed it out.
The red flare fell through the darkness, briefly illuminating the cave. A massive cavern appeared before their eyes.
For a moment, everyone was excited.
Now this was an adventure!
Everyone started spreading out to investigate.
With just one flare, it was difficult to clearly see the surrounding environment.
Danny, with his enhanced vision, could see clearly. This cave was not only damp and dark, but the rocks seemed covered with some unknown secretion.
Similar to cave formations dripping mineral deposits, but far more disgusting.
"Danny, look, there's a pool here!" Sarah was curious about everything. For her first real adventure, everything was fascinating.
Sarah even reached out to touch the water pooled in the rock depression.
Danny grabbed Sarah's hand. "Stay behind Beth and don't wander off or touch things."
Sarah grumbled, "Okay, okay."
Beth found this scene somewhat endearing. She'd originally thought Danny would also act recklessly, but he seemed far more mature than Sarah.
Juno and Rebecca argued for a while at a tunnel entrance. It seemed Juno won and led everyone toward this narrow, dark passage.
Just as Juno was about to enter, Holly acted quickly and slipped into the tunnel before her.
"Holly, can't you ever not be competitive?" Juno said helplessly.
"Juno, if you're too scared, let me scout ahead."
Holly's voice echoed from inside.
Juno had no choice but to lead the others forward.
This time, Danny was in fourth position.
This tunnel was even narrower. Even tiny Sarah had difficulty squeezing through, let alone Danny, who nearly scraped the walls getting in.
As he crawled, he suddenly found himself stuck.
Without hesitation, Danny chose to fuse with One Eye's card. The increase in strength allowed him to instantly break free and quickly crawl forward, emerging to catch up with Juno and the others.
Tragically, someone got stuck behind—it was Sam, who was at the rear. Beth, who'd already crawled out, crawled back along the passage.
Perhaps because of Danny's forceful struggle moments ago, the tunnel suddenly began shaking, looking as if it might collapse.
Juno and Sarah both panicked.
Danny, however, calmly took out his folding entrenching tool from his pack, gripped the handle with both hands, and precariously propped up a falling boulder, allowing Beth and Sam to safely crawl out at the last moment.
Beth was good people. He was human, not a monster, so if he could easily save her, he would. Besides, the more people there were in this hellhole, the safer it would be.
Same principle: if there was real danger, he didn't need to outrun the crawlers, just outrun his teammates.
The first thing Beth did after emerging was hug Danny tightly, pressing his face into her chest.
"Oh honey, thank you, thank you so much."
Danny: ⊙_⊙
He felt a little suffocated.
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